Sorority
by Omnicat
Summary: Une never went out drinking as a cadet on account of being fourteen at the time, while Noin became an instructor after graduation and never left the cadets behind. Their stories couldn't be more different, and yet here they are, sitting at the same bar.


**Title:** Sorority

**Author:** Omnicat

**Spoilers & Desirable Foreknowledge:** Masashi Ikeda & co's Gundam Wing, including side stories.

**Warnings:** None.

**Characters & Pairings:** Noin (x Zechs, MIA) and Une (x Treize, dead)

**Summary:** Une never went out drinking as a cadet on account of being fourteen at the time, while Noin became an instructor after graduation and never left the cadets behind. Their stories couldn't be more different, and yet here they are, sitting at the same bar.

**Author's Note:** Enjoy!

**II-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-I-oOo-I-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-II**

**Sorority**

It was a kind of unspoken rule never to mention it, but one day Noin just had to ask. "Lady, how old are you?"

Lady Une cocked an eyebrow and leaned back in her plush leather seat. "Twenty."

Noin nodded. "Me too." She looked around the room. A very big office on a very high floor, housing the heart of a very important worldwide organisation. "We should go out some time."

"Pardon?"

"We, director Une, need to get out more. We need a life."

Une's brow furrowed in puzzlement. "I'm afraid I'm not following you, agent Noin."

"That's exactly the problem. When do you get off shift today?"

"At the same time you do."

"Good. I'll be waiting for you in the lobby at five, then."

**I-oOo-I**

There was something distinctly awkward about sitting in a bar and drinking beer together without knowing what to do to make it seem natural.

"So..." Noin began, then trailed off. She made her beer-mat do a cartwheel and looked around. At the paraphernalia tacked to the walls, at the clientele. Une seemed hard-pressed not to make a face at the establishment as a whole.

"Did you ever go clubbing with the cadets?" Noin finally managed.

"I haven't been around cadets since I was fourteen."

"Ah. Of course."

It would have been obvious, really, if Noin hadn't been so preoccupied with finding something – anything at all – to say. She took a quick swig of her beer and continued just as quickly, her voice a little hoarse from the drink: "This time last year I was still an instructor at Lake Victoria, see, so I've never _not_ been around cadets ever since I joined up."

"Why did you join up?" Une asked suddenly.

Noin stared at her. "Why?"

"Yes, _why_," Une repeated with a – well-deserved – roll of the eyes. "I looked up your records. You were at the top of all your classes up until the very end, when Zechs Merquise suddenly came out ahead of you after having been your second all along. And in the years after graduation, you haven't moved beyond a position as instructor at the same academy you were trained at." Une shifted in her seat so she could fix Noin directly with her intense, almost incredulous gaze. "Your records show a complete lack of ambition and desire to prove yourself on the battlefield. What are you _doing_ here?"

Une's sudden attention felt like tripping downhill. Fancy this little colleague bonding thing actually working.

"Oh, you know." Noin waved a hand vaguely. "The usual story. Old-fashioned family, only child, would have preferred a boy. I was sent off to military school as soon as I hit the page's age. I was eight, I was nobility, I didn't know any better." She shrugged. "I'm just a child of the times."

She ordered another beer and tried not to fidget as Une stared at her. They were silent for a while, and when Une spoke it was a surprise – again. They had managed to leave their past animosity behind with the founding of the Preventer agency, but Noin hadn't expected the other woman to open up so quickly. She hardly seemed the type.

"I don't know about such things. My family wasn't that high-class."

Noin couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the fact that that statement was followed by Une hailing the bartender and ordering a glass of wine, while her beer sat in front of her, barely touched. Maybe that was why the look she gave Noin next was so sharp.

"I wasn't in a position to be so apathetic about my fate, though."

Somehow, that didn't come as a surprise.

"Everyone has their story, I suppose," Noin said kindly, and looked down into her glass. "I guess I was lucky, all things considering. I was really pissed off and hurt when I realised I was the only girl in my class, though. Had half a mind to flunk everything just to show my dad where he could stuff it."

"But you didn't," Une said, and Noin's expression softened further, until she was smiling.

"Nope. Because I met a broody kid who said his name was Zechs yet didn't react when I called him that. He had talent, and I could tell he was trying really hard, but whenever he had to fight he only seemed to end up fighting himself. One thing led to another, and we ended up competing against each other, always striving to get better so we could beat the other. He didn't have as much trouble focusing when it was just me. We were best friends, so we made great rivals."

"And you stayed in this business even after he left because by then, you didn't know anything else to do," Une finished.

"Basically, yeah. That, and the cause is good, but that should go without saying."

"It does," Une said with a firm nod.

Seeing the bottom of her glass again made Noin bold, so eventually she confessed: "I don't mind this kind of life, but one day I'd like to be a mom. It's like you said; I'm not the type for pursuing a career just for the sake of it. But Zechs would have to screw his head on right first before I could focus on a family, so I'm not in a hurry." She grinned a little at the thought.

"You think he's still alive?" Une asked doubtfully.

"Of course. He's hard to kill."

"I suppose."

"So, what about you?" Noin asked.

"Mister Treize lives on in my heart," Une said with an admirable, if somewhat stiff, semblance of dignity.

Noin had to tell herself laughter, no matter how well-meant, was not an appropriate response. "I meant your career."

Une's glass of wine was empty enough to turn her pink in the cheeks even as she frowned at the sticky patch of bar she'd planted her elbow on. The other explanation for the sudden symptoms was so out of character Noin decided to not even entertain the possibility.

"Long story. My family is messed up."

Noin ordered two more drinks and waited for Une to elaborate, but no more words came. Eventually she sighed and followed Une's example of turning her attention inward. She'd get the story out of Une sooner or later. What she had gotten tonight was a good start. At the moment, with the war over, Treize dead, Zechs gone, family far away and estranged, the Preventer endeavour was all they had. The job, and the colleagues. What little ambitions she had couldn't be rushed even if she was sure she _wanted_ to rush them, so she'd just have to make the best of what she had here and now.

She had Sally, and Une was coming around. What more could she need?


End file.
